


Dead or alive

by syusuke



Series: The White Demon [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, I had to give him a handicap, Tobirama has a family, Tobirama is Hokage, Tobirama to the rescue, accidentally inspired myself by drawing first, circular structure, sakumo hatake is Tobirama's grandchild, sakumo's parents die, severly injured tobirama, this is my headcanon deal with it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 17:32:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18197240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syusuke/pseuds/syusuke
Summary: Sakumo meets his grandfather for the first time, on the worst day of his life.orTobirama couldn't care less about his own life when his family is in danger.





	Dead or alive

**Author's Note:**

> This is my personal headcanon on Tobirama actually having a family, but hiding them for safety's sake.  
> As usual, this is unbeta'd and if anything bothers you, feel free to tell me.  
> And now, please enjoy!

„I read all of your letters.“

“I see.”

Tobirama felt the small hands dig deeper into his fur collar. His robe was soaking up the wetness pressed against his chest. The child trembled, trying and failing to stiffle his sobs.

“Why did you hide us?”

His heart sank. Tobirama had always been quite adept at reading between the lines. It wasn’t an issue that he had decided to let them grow up outside of Konoha. It was his absence that caused this pain. He wished he could have been here. He would have loved to see their first steps, hear their first words. If only he could have had the luxury of calming them down after nightmares, gently rocking them in his arms. It had not been an option.

“I had to protect you. I wanted your father and you to have a choice.”

He never wanted them to become Shinobi. He had seen too many children die. The Uchiha and the Senju had killed each other’s kids for decades. Child soldiers or rather spies had been a fundamental part of the clan life. Tobirama still felt the old anger rising in him whenever he thought of Kawarama’s death. He had been too young, too innocent. A child doing the work of adults. There were many things Tobirama regretted in his life. But he had never stopped working towards peace. As wary as he was of the Uchiha – Konoha was a success. The life expectancy had gone up considerably. Nonetheless he had never wanted them to become Shinobi.

“But you were alone all this time..”

Tobirama took a deep breath. He was struggling to keep his composure. The child in his arms needed comfort, not the front he had always put up for his brother’s sake. Carefully he pulled him deeper into his arms, let him bury his face in the fur. He would have preferred to stay with them. His heart ached for the happy life he could have led. His mind told him a different story. The mind very much ruled the body in his case though. So Tobirama had done what needed to be done. He had a role to fulfill in Konoha. He was needed as a shadow to Hashirama’s light. Even after Hashirama’s death he had remained in Konoha and taken on the duty of Hokage. There had been no one else. It was a role that should have been filled by Madara. A show of trust that would have united the clans. But Madara was dead and Tobirama was the only one influential and knowledgeable enough to lead Konoha. Even if it meant that he had to isolate himself.

There had been several enemy clans that wanted to use his family as a weakness. They were too late for that though. By the time Konoha became a threat to other villages, his siblings had all been dead, niece and nephew hidden away behind heavily-guarded gates, protected by the Uzumaki prodigy. No one could break Mito’s seals.The only one they managed to capture was Touka. While his cousin’s death had impacted him greatly, he respected her as a shinobi. He knew that she had allowed them to capture her. She had sacrificed herself to let her teammates escape. It was remarkable that she had made it to the village borders afterwards. Bloodied, miserable and chakra-depleted. No one could save her anymore – maybe Hashirama could have, but they couldn’t rely on his medical jutsu anymore.

“I’m truly sorry, Sakumo. I was too late. So many good people died.”

Sakumo abruptly looked up, his tear-stained eyes fixed on Tobirama’s left eye. The child avoided his right side, where kunai and fire had destroyed his sight. Tobirama smiled sadly at his one and only grandchild. He missed the chance to meet the second one when the Nuke-nin had incapacitated him a few hours ago. The unborn child had been cut out of his mother. Even though he had seen so much horror that sight had frozen him in cold terror.

Long enough to be startled by the sudden appearance of the second group of enemies.

 

“You almost DIED protecting me!”

"Good. I don't need to go back to Konoha now. Surely, the enemies have claimed the bounty on my head."

 

Tobirama would have sacrificed himself in a heartbeat to safe Sakumo, but he couldn’t tell him. The child needed a caretaker, needed someone to be there for him. So Tobirama pushed his own grieve aside, locked it up with the new guilt and a lifetime of regrets.

He had done the unforgivable. Tobirama had frozen – in battle. He had kneeled beside his son’s dead body, just a few minutes too late. He stared at the mutilated body of his daughter-in-law, haunted by the image of delicate little toes. When he touched the tiny feet, they were still warm.

Tobirama was widely known to be a master of surprise attacks. He was feared for his sensory skills. Yet at that moment he didn’t sense anything. He didn’t sense the fireball approaching him. He couldn’t feel the heat. It was the overwhelming pain of any trace of liquid leaving the right side of his body that finally snapped him out of it.

It didn’t matter that the enemy had effectively blinded Tobirama. It didn’t matter that he had taken several kunai to his back and one deep into his flank to shield Sakumo, when he had seen the child running to his side. But it mattered that Tobirama was an extremely powerful sensor and didn’t need sight to fight well. It mattered that there had been a river close by and his water style had been enough to force the enemy to retreat.

He was thankful. His mind had been a hot mess of emotions and he had barely thought enough to leave a shadow clone at Sakumo’s side. In his rage he had wrecked havoc with no regard for his own life. It had been a group of five nuke-nins, three lay dead at his feet. The other two stood on different sides of him, attacking in well-practiced synchrony. It had been too long since Tobirama had fought with such an immense handicap. He did well enough against them, but had no energy left to feel a group of eight new chakra signatures approach.

 

The genius of the Senju clan, creator of dozens of jutsus, most proficient water style user known and the second Hokage. Yet – his reputation couldn’t help Tobirama. He couldn’t be certain that his enemies recognized him at all. He had ran to his family’s distressed chakra signatures, the second he felt their fear. Dressed in casual clothing, nothing on him with a clan or village emblem, he hadn’t even paused long enough to grab his weapons. He looked nothing like his usual self, not while dripping sweat from the exertion and well-masked pain, not with his eyes blindfolded on the desperate bet he might be able to heal them later, definitely not with his right side covered in severe burns and his entire body covered in ashes. It didn’t help that he had been low on chakra even before he got here.

 

The fight was brutal and short.

He was barely conscious, laying in the shallow river bed. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t sense, he could only hear the water brushing against him. There was no way for him to know what was going on. Until he suddenly did.

The moment his shadow clone dissipated, he knew. Suddenly, he knew that the clone had hidden his battered body in mist and had drawn the enemy nin away. He was aware that Sakumo should be somewhere close by, waiting for his signal to approach. He was a little surprised that his clone had gone so far, as retrieving one of his happuri and leaving it for the enemies as a trophy. Relentless planning, even in face of possible death.

Tobirama refused to be weak. To his frustration it took him two tries to release the seal. His last seal, the one only for healing potentially fatal injuries, the one Mito had told him was a last resort. It was intricate and needed immense concentration to use, he felt chakra flowing back into his system, as the red marks on his face faded to a dull grey.

 

Sakumo saw Tobirama slowly standing up and took it as his cue. The enemy nin had been out of sight for a while now. All Sakumo could think about was being safe and Tobirama had protected him before, surely he would do it again? As soon as he reached out for Tobirama, he felt a strange tingling sensation, slightly nauseating.

He hadn’t realized his vision went black until it sharply came back into focus. They were in a cave. Strange symbols were painted on the walls, an unlit fireplace. Lots and lots of scrolls on a neatly organized desk. Sakumo noticed his grandfather rummaging around in the further back of the cave and when he returned a few minutes later the blindfold was off, his torso was bandaged and he had changed into dry clothes, wearing a familiar white fur collar. His grandfather... He had known that, his parents had told him that the Senju clan head was his grandfather, but he had never met him before. As the man approached him, Sakumo said the first thing that came to mind.

“I read all of your letters.”

 

 

 

 

 

\----

 

I drew this as shading practice, but I actually like how it turned out and it inspired me to write, so I might as well share it too.

**Author's Note:**

> As always feedback (on the writing, not the drawing) make my day!
> 
> Also, I have a lot of headcanons on Tobirama. If you wanna discuss those, I'm more than happy to engage.


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